About once a year, even though they live in Ohio only 45 miles from each other in North Olmsted and Tallmadge, Jerry Loss, Class of 1955, and John Olesky, Class of 1950, have a reunion. Their mothers were sisters who came from Italy to America as young children.

Tuesday, October 11 was one of those days. Jerry and Elaine drove south from North Olmsted and John drove north from Tallmadge to meet in a Hudson restaurant.

Last year a visit to a nearby funeral home gave John and Paula Tucker a chance to visit Jerry and Elaine in a North Oldsted restaurant.

Other reunions took place in the Brunswick home of John’s daughter, Monnie Ann, or poolside at John’s previous home in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Jerry grew up with his late brother, Robert Loss, on the Mill Fall farm of their parents, Frank and Gezala Futten Loss. Gezala came from Pellizzano, Italy to America in 1920 with John’s mother, Lena Futten Olesky, along with their brother, the late Si Futten, who was a long-time Fairmont barber. They were 7, 9 and 10 years old.

Their mother, Maria Fedrigon Futten, couldn’t speak English but went from Pellizzano to Genoa, Italy where she got on The Queen of Italy ship with her three young children, went through Ellis Island immigration, took a train from New York City to Clarksburg and then got on a bus from Clarksburg to Swisher Hill, West Virginia, an incorporated wide place in the road. She just showed a note that said “Swisher Hill, West Virginia” as they made her way by boat, train and bus to her husband, Severino Futten, who came over a few years earlier (and then World War I kept the family apart).

My Nona’s (Maria) brave and intimidating journey has been repeated many times over by immigrants from many countries who came to America for a better life for themselves and, more importantly to them, for their children. They were part of the “poor, tired, huddled masses yearning to be free,” as it is emblazoned at the base of the Statue of Liberty. It is this amalgamation of people from many lands and languages that makes America the most amazing and unique democracy in the world.

Jerry and John have survived a toe infection, knee replacements, hip replacements, gall bladder removal and Pacemaker insertions into their bodies.

The latest reunion was so much fun that they spent nearly three hours in the Hudson restaurant, which was mostly empty between lunch and dinner arrivals, just talking about the days on the Mill Fall farm amid the chickens and cows and a rare deer sighting and splashing in a tiny creek that ran alongside the Loss farm. John’s sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville, also took part in the Mill Fall gatherings.

If you want to contact Jerry,  his address is:

Jerry Loss

23560 Sharon Drive
North Olmsted, OH  44070

Phone: (440) 777-0183.

When Don Pitman, Class of 1962, married wife Joan, he added a Mannington mob to his Monongah mob.

Proof: 80 showed up for the Pethtel Reunion in Mannington Park this month.

It’s not that there were no Pethtels at Monongah High, just that they were vastly out-numbered in Marion County by the Mannington Pethtels.

At Monongah High after Don’s graduation were:

Charles Pethtel, Class of 1966.

Bobby Pethtel, Class of 1968.

Prudence Jeanette Pethtel, Class of 1968.

Diane Dickens Pethtel, Class of 1972.

The children of the late Olive Jane Kniceley Hulderman of Idamay include Don, who lives in White Hall with Joan;  Sylvia Ann Hulderman Edwards, Class of 1967, married to Ed, who live in Idamay (Sylvia previously was married to Don Fitzwater, Class of 1966); Raymond "Bugs" Hulderman, Class of 1966, married to Lorraine Snider Hulderman, Class of 1966, who live on Swisher Hill; and Thomas Hulderman, Class of 1969, who lives with Jane Hulderman.

It was the 2015 Anderson family reunion in Mannington’s Hough Park but it also was a Prahl reunion for sisters Carolyn Marie Prahl Mikulski, Class of 1966, and Marian “Mimi” Prahl Tennant, Class of 1969.

Carolyn’s daughter, Cheri Mikulski Smith, a 1988 North Marion grad who is from Carolina but lives in Morgantown, also made it a Mikulski reunion.  

Carolyn also is the mother of Tom Mikulski, a son by her ex-husband, also named Tom Mikulski, Class of 1966, who lives in Henderson, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb. Agnes Jean Larry DiLaura, Class of 1950, also lives in Henderson.

The 1966 grad Tom’s siblings are Fairmont State grad Stephen Mikulski, Class of 1964, a Montgomery County Public Schools teacher of engineering design married to Holly White Mikulski and living in Germantown, Maryland; David Higinbotham of Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Catherine Rogers of Fairmont; and Susan Morgan of Cupertino, California.

What about YOU? If you have a family reunion this summer, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com with the details and photos in jpeg format, or if you have a Facebook page I can swipe the reunion photos from there, as I did with the Prahl sisters. 

When is YOUR family reunion?

The Brooks family, which includes Beth Pritchard Brooks, will be having its family reunion Sunday, July 12.

The Meredith family, which includes Bill Meredith, Class of 1957, and Patty Meredith Wills, Class of 1950, will be having its reunion June 24 in Canaan Valley State Park again.

The Barr family, which includes Jeanette Barr Baczuk, Class of 1940, who lives in Ashland, Ohio, will have its family reunion at Blackwater Falls State Park, as usual, on June 27. Marcie Marsh, Jeanette's brother Harrelson's daughter, and Jeanette will be the only Monongah High grads there since sister Suzanne Barr Loss, Class of 1948, widow of Arnold "J.B." Loss who lives in Mill Fall, doesn't make the trek any more.

Suzanne and Arnold’s son, Mike, lives nearby on the Mill Fall property once owned by Francis “Frank” Loss and wife Gezala Futten Loss, whose son, Jerry Loss, Class of 1956, lives in North Olmsted, Ohio. Harrelson once was saved from drowning by Lance Ammons, but Harrelson wasn't swimming: He was sledriding on what he thought was safe ice by Worthington dam. Wrong! In he went. So did Lance, saving Harrelson.

 

My drowning savior was Bob Morris, son of Marvin and Lillian Scott Morris, and brother of Marvin Morris, Jr., Class of 1939, and Lois Jean Morris Hamrick, both deceased. 

 

I almost drowned again at Coal Hole when I did a backflip and wound up under an underwater ledge, which I couldn't see because the sulphur water was good for curing poison ivy but not for seeing in it. Luckily, I picked a direction to go and it was out from under the ledge to safety.

 

Bob Tetrick was saved by Tom Belcastro, also known as Tommy Ohio. Billy Don Parks rescued Duane Harbert from a premature death by drowning.

 

We all had our guardian angles handy when we had misadventures in the water. Otherwise, more of us wouldn't have made it into adulthood.

 

Pete and Rose Cimino Belcastro's children were Jennie Belcastro Senkus, Patricia Belcastro Fuscaldo, Teresa Belcastro Rogers, Louis Belcastro and Sam Belcastro.

 

What about YOUR family? If you have a family reunion planned this summer, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com with the details. You know, date and place, how long you’ve been doing the reunions, etc. And who at the reunion is a Monongah High graduate – name names, graduation year, current hometown.